Energy storage solutions don’t have the same investment appeal as a sexy tech trend like AI, but they’re every bit as important.
Consider this…
For more than 30 years, demand for electricity has held steady or even fallen. But in the next five years, that demand is set to grow by 38 gigawatts — the equivalent of 34 new nuclear plants.
This is putting a tremendous strain on electric utilities, like Georgia Power. The Peach State’s state’s largest power provider says it needs to radically increase the amount of electricity it produces — and fast.
Specifically, it said it needs 17 times more electricity — the equivalent of four new nuclear plants.
Meanwhile, Arizona Public Service, the largest utility in that state, is also struggling to keep up. It says it’s going to run out of transmission capacity before the end of the decade unless major upgrades are made.
The same is true in Virginia, Texas, and elsewhere. All of these power grids are suddenly scrambling to cover soaring demand for electricity.
And while factors like economic growth and electric vehicles are partially responsible for the surge in energy demand, there is one culprit that’s more responsible than any other. And that’s data centers.
The Driving Force Behind Energy Storage Demand
Data centers and server farms are the sprawling warehouses that process all of the apps and websites Americans rely on everyday. Every web-based application from Amazon to Netflix to Instagram runs through a data center.
They also carry the water for the crypto industry, processing all of the mining, storage, and transactions. And on top of that, AI has exacerbated demand for their services even more.
Indeed, AI applications are among the most power intensive on the planet. And they’re growing in scale, sophistication, and adaptation.
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That’s why states like Georgia are suddenly scrambling. Georgia Power says that 80% of its demand crunch is attributable to data centers.
Metro Atlanta is now the No. 6 market in the country for data centers, which are growing in both number and size. In fact, energy demand from data centers in the region has more than doubled.
That is, metro Atlanta’s entire data center market totaled 142.6 megawatts (MWs) in 2019. But at least eight individual data center campuses are under development in the area today. And they’re bringing another 150 MWs of demand with them.
The same thing is happening in Virginia, which also needs the equivalent of several large nuclear power plants to service all the new data centers it has planned and under construction.
In all, America’s 2,700 data centers ate up more than 4% of the country’s total electricity in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency. Its projections show that figure will rise to 6% by 2026. And it’s going to keep rising from there.
The Solution to America’s Energy Crisis
Obviously, rapidly building dozens of new nuclear power plants over the next few years to meet surging electricity demand is not an adequate solution to this problem.
Energy storage is. If America can store more energy, we can optimize the power produced by solar and wind, which are inconsistent.
For example, California is now building a huge new battery plant near Los Angeles that will be among the largest in the world when it comes online later this year. This will shore up California’s power grid during the peak summer season and help the state achieve its renewable energy goals.
California has long been at the forefront of this transition, which is why the state accounts for more than half our nation’s power storage capacity. But others are now joining in.
According to research firm Wood Mackenzie, new U.S. grid storage installations jumped 98% last year. And they’re poised to grow another 30% this year.
As a result, the market is poised to grow from $20 billion today to more than $546 billion by 2035.
Tesla is one good example of how this growth can be exploited. Its energy storage business is growing 90% annually and is now more profitable than its electric car segment.
However, despite that, Tesla actually isn’t the best investment opportunity in the space. For that, you have to look somewhere else…
The Best Energy Storage Investment
The problem with Tesla’s energy storage business (besides Musk’s own mercurial and erratic nature) is that it’s structured around lithium batteries.
Now, lithium batteries may be fine for smartphones, laptops, and even electric cars. But when it comes to massive battery parks and commercial energy storage, they just can’t get the job done.
Lithium batteries leak energy, degrade over time, struggle at extreme temperatures, and are even prone to spontaneously combust. That’s why the better solution is vanadium.
Vanadium batteries…
- Have a life span 40 TIMES longer than lithium batteries — lasting 25 years or more — making them far more durable than any conventional renewable system…
- Can be recharged endlessly without losing efficiency…
- Can be easily scaled up to offer unlimited energy storage capacity…
- And are non-flammable.
This makes them ideal for large-scale energy storage. And one company in particular — a company magnitudes smaller than Tesla — has the inside track on their development.
As such, it’s already caught the attention of the U.S. Department of Energy, securing $40 million in funding from the government. And it’s set up for a major payday in line with the growth in U.S. power consumption and energy storage.
Just click here to get all the details you need to cash in.
Fight on, Jason Simpkins Simpkins is the founder and editor of Secret Stock Files, an investment service that focuses on companies with assets — tangible resources and products that can hold and appreciate in value. He covers mining companies, energy companies, defense contractors, dividend payers, commodities, staples, legacies and more… In 2023 he joined The Wealth Advisory team as a defense market analyst where he reviews and recommends new military and government opportunities that come across his radar, especially those that spin-off healthy, growing income streams. For more on Jason, check out his editor’s page. Be sure to visit our Angel Investment Research channel on YouTube and tune into Jason’s podcasts. Want to hear more from Jason? Sign up to receive emails directly from him ranging from market commentaries to opportunities that he has his eye on. 
